Coffee always saves the day
by IllyanaStones
Summary: Reed is going to fix things if it kills him. He is going to make things right even if it's the last thing he does. Set after Fantastic Four (2015).


**A/N: I've never read the comics or watched the old movies so I find the new one pretty good. The new cast is amazing, the plot is okay… Yeah, I admit the villain is kinda lame, but the rest is acceptable. I'm a little sad that Ben and Reed's friendship got ruined because of abandonment issues, but I sympathize with Reed. Sometimes we can't see any other ways but to leave the people we hold most dear behind to try and fix everything.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

* * *

 **Coffee always saves the day**

Reed is going to fix things if it kills him. He is going to make things right even if it's the last thing he does. Reed Richard told himself as he buried himself in his papers, equations and diagrams.

Every day waking up and seeing his best friend, well former best friend, unhappy, Reed felt like drowning himself in alcohol and never waking up again. He did this. He brought Ben into this and Ben paid the price. His friend nearly died on Planet Zero. But instead of dying, Ben suffered a fate worse than death. He would probably never have a chance to live a normal life again. Not to mention the Storm siblings. They lost their chance of happiness: their father and their future. Reed was supposed to be a smart person, but he let disasters after disasters happen. Therefore, he would not stop working until he found a solution to make his friends' life easier. Or at least Ben's since he was the one who suffered the most having had his appearance altered.

Reed made a note to himself to design an AI when he went through his papers to search for a theory he made some time ago during his one year traveling. A computer which could remind him of things immediately when he needed would come in handy. Another project added to piles of projects. But Reed didn't mind. Work kept him going. If he took a break and did nothing, he would go crazy because of guilt, and that was not the can of worms he wanted to open. Ever. And he didn't want to open the door of his room in the Fant4stic Headquarters to interact with anybody or the outside world either. So working in his room/lab was the perfect excuse to avoid society. More and more inventions to work on would keep the excuse valid for… forever, hopefully.

* * *

"Hey Reed, I'm going out. After the whole showdown with Doom, I seriously need some distraction! You coming?" Johnny yelled from outside.

"Nah go have fun! You deserve it man! I've got something I need to finish!" Reed replied.

"Your loss, man."

That was how it was for four of them these days. Johnny would go out somewhere to have a few drinks, race and do all kinds of things that Reed didn't need to know the details. Johnny's sister, Sue was a different story. She couldn't get over Dr. Storm's death. So she spent most of her time looking at his photos, going through his documents and ideals, trying to honor his memories. She would have lost herself in grief if it weren't for Ben being there for her. He had his own grief to deal with, but he didn't lose someone close to him. The Thing had a protective streak that obligated him to stick around the most vulnerable member of the team during this hard time. Reed knew that his friends were coping with their pain well enough so he didn't need to intervene and screw things up, _aga_

Reed cursed. He ran out of coffee. He _needed_ coffee, badly. Glancing around in hope of seeing any coffee left, his eyes met the digital clock. It was 4:00 in the morning. Everyone was still asleep so he couldn't ask for anyone to go out and buy him instant coffee packets. But then he wouldn't bump into anyone in headquarters this time of the day if he got out of his room so perhaps he should stretch his muscles a little (figuratively and literally), see the sky and buy about a truck of instant coffee. Yeah, what could go wrong? It wouldn't take too long, he would be back before anybody even knew he left. Even though the facility was quite far from civilization (where they sold coffee), Reed could drive fast and move fast.

The air was colder outside his room. Reed shivered slightly but didn't change his clothes. The suit he designed himself and had been wearing for almost a year was so attached to his body now that he had a hard time thinking of putting anything different on. Besides, normal clothes wouldn't allow him to use his ability properly and god knows he had to prepare to stretch at any moment. He was cautious of everything living on his own for a year. The government was anything but friendly with them and sooner or later they would have to face the music. If the military was sent to mess with his team, Reed wouldn't hold back like he did with Ben. He had learnt to do a lot of crazy shit with his power. His skills weren't really good against Doom, but they would be more than enough to deal with gorillas firing bullets and nasty stuff at his friends.

Reed's luck was really rotten. The exact morning Sue decided that it was a good idea for everybody to eat breakfast together for the first time since they moved to this enormous facility. It was necessary to sort out all the problems everybody was having and they couldn't be an efficient team by avoiding each other. So she got up about 15 minutes after Reed left. It wasn't easy for her to sleep peacefully anyway. Invisible Woman made her way to her brother's room first. Normally he would be sleeping at this time of the day but after everything, changes were inevitable. To her surprise, Johnny's room was empty. Worry hit her but she quickly composed herself. Freaking out wouldn't solve anything. Sue dialed her brother's number and waited:

"What… time…?" Johnny picked up the phone, groaning.

"Johnny where are you?" Sue tried to keep her voice neutral but failed. She was worried, dammit.

"Oh hey sis… A motel, I think. You can't sleep?"

"A motel… Do I even want to know?" Sue couldn't help rolling her eyes. Typically Johnny.

"Probably not, Sue. Look, I'll get back right now, okay? I can fly, remember?"

"Yeah, be careful. Try not to attract attention to yourself."

"No-one's awake, Sue. Except for you and I. See you in a few minutes." Johnny hung up. He felt pretty hopeful that Sue finally managed to talk to him without sounding like a zombie.

Sue came to Ben's room next. She didn't want to confront Reed since she still felt angry at his absence after the trip to Planet Zero. Hopefully Ben was in his room. With his physical condition, he would be unlikely to leave the facility unless absolutely necessary.

"Sue, is that you?" Ben's voice came from the kitchen of their headquarter.

"Yeah Ben, it's me. Can't sleep?"

"Just hungry. You have nightmares?" He sounded concerned, like he always did.

"No, not really. Any coffee there?"

"No. I think Reed took all of it for himself." There was a bitterness in his voice that saddened Sue.

Ben being mad at Reed was understandable, but she still hoped their friendship would be okay again given time and effort (from Ben and Reed respectively).

"He just really likes coffee. He drank it a lot in his time at Baxter." Sue gently said.

"Yeah, that nerd gulps down coffee more than he does water." Ben snorted.

"How about we go to his room and take some coffee for ourselves? Johnny will join us soon."

"Actually I'm already here." Human Torch's flaming figure lightened up the kitchen. "And a car is missing from the garage. Since you two are here, I guess Reed is out, which is weird because he said no when I asked him to join me last night."

"Maybe he changed his mind and went on a lone adventure." The Thing grumbled. Reed was going to have a hard time fixing their friendship.

Sue called Reed and waited. No-one picked up but they heard ringing sounds from Reed's room. He didn't bring his phone with him. Sue and Johnny frowned. Something was off.

"I didn't hear any struggles." Ben stated slowly. He wasn't okay with Reed yet but that didn't mean he wanted something bad to happen to the genius.

"Let's check his room in case he leaves notes." Sue said hopefully.

The three members made their way to their de facto leader's room. There **were** notes in Reed's room, but none of them said anything about his whereabouts. The room smelled heavily of coffee, ink and paper, coffee especially. Johnny said:

"Guys, does Reed live on coffee or something? This place reeks of it I thought it's a coffee shop."

"I hope he eats something, too." Sue mumbled worriedly while looking at all the papers and complicated equations.

There were reports about elements on Planet Zero and military reports about Sue, Johnny and Ben's powers sticking on the walls everywhere.

"He's finally going insane. What the hell is he doing? We're not working for anybody anymore." Johnny whistled at the colorful liquid contained in tubes.

"Probably coming up with more inventions to change the world." Ben said bitterly, but there was a wistful look on his face.

A photo of two kids hung near the computer desk caught Johnny's attention.

"Hey Ben, is that you and Reed?"

"Wow, he still keeps it, huh." Ben failed at hiding his surprise.

"We found that photo in the house he was hiding. He has always kept it." Sue smiled warmly at Ben. The big guy needed to give his friend some slack. Reed was only human, no matter how intelligent he was.

"Don't touch anything. We don't know what all of these do." Sue warned the guys in the room. "Actually, I have an idea of what Reed's doing here."

"What's he doing then?" Johnny said impatiently, hoping that whatever it was wouldn't cause any disasters.

"He's still finding a cure for us, for Ben especially." Sue examined the most recent notes carefully, trying to see the probability of Reed's work.

"Really?" Ben's face brightened, there was no bitterness in his voice.

"Yeah, in fact, everything here is about reversing our physical conditions." Sue said confidently.

"Wow, I thought we're all okay with this Fantastic Four business. We'll use this gifts to help people!" Johnny exclaimed hotly.

"Yes, we will. But I will be happy if I'm not orange all the time." Ben mumbled sadly.

"Oh, I'm…" Johnny suddenly found the floor really interesting. He didn't think of Ben's appearance all that much…

"It's fine, really. I'm starting to come to terms with it."

"We still don't know where Reed went." Sue bit her lips, anxiety started to get to her.

"Well, the room smells like coffee but there isn't any coffee. Maybe he went out to get coffee?" Johnny suggested.

"At 4 in the morning?" Sue raised her eyebrow. Reed wasn't _that_ crazy, right?

"He actually does this pretty often when there's an exam, you know." Ben said slowly, cursing himself for not at least checking up on Reed. The nerd was brilliant at science, but his self-preservation was zero or below.

"So he went out for coffee. Maybe we should wait." Johnny shrugged. It wasn't such a big problem.

"Shit guys, I'll go look for him now." Ben hurried out of the room. Damn it, he was too mad at his friend to remember Reed's tendency to fix everything and screw himself up.

"What, why? He's a big boy with super power, he'll be fine!" Johnny looked at Ben like the guy just grew an extra rock.

"He's also stupid." Ben said with conviction. He knew all about Reed's stupidity and insanity. God knows how long it had been since Reed actually ate and tended to his human needs except for trips to toilets.

"Then Johnny and I will go! You should stay here in case he's back!" Sue told Ben urgently.

"No Sue, I have to find him and tell him to stop being a jackass!" Ben left no room for argument as he walked out of Fant4stic Headquarter, praying to whoever's listening that Reed hadn't collapsed somewhere and crashed the car.

"Okay, you two can shut up now so we can fly!" Johnny shouted from the sky.

Sue rolled her eyes at her brother but lifted herself and Ben from the ground.

* * *

Reed got back to the facility feeling dizzy. Maybe he walked too fast? Drove too fast? He didn't know and he didn't really care. There was nothing a cup of coffee couldn't cure, at least to Reed. The genius made his way to the kitchen to put some coffee into the cupboard in case his friends needed some and took most of the amount he bought to his room. Breathing in the aroma of coffee, Reed didn't feel any better. The room spun as Reed blinked his eyes to clear his vision but his knees gave out and the world went black.

* * *

"Sue, stop freaking out! Maybe he found a chick and…" Johnny waved his hands madly at his sister as he, Sue and Ben went back to headquarter an hour after their departure from their headquarter.

"Reed! Oh my god!" Sue gasped loudly and frantically ran to Reed's still body on the floor just outside the kitchen.

"Damn it, Reed!" Ben hissed angrily, his rocky legs hit the floor a bit too hard.

"Shit! What happened?" Johnny cursed himself for his chick comment.

"I don't know. He doesn't respond." Sue slapped Reed's face trying to wake him up but the genius didn't react at all.

"We need to get help. His body probably shut down." Ben gritted his teeth, silently cursing everybody, especially Reed and himself.

"Damn, that's a lot of coffee." Johnny eyed the huge bag of instant coffee packets. "And he's planning on drinking all of that."

"Come on Johnny, give us a hand." Sue called her brother but Ben already lifted Reed up.

* * *

Ben sat next to the bed Reed was lying on. The genius was tense. There was a slight frown on his face indicating that he was trying to get out of his slumber, to get back to his projects perhaps. The nurses who worked for them tried to administer some fluids into Reed but the needles couldn't break his skin. Reed's instinct was to prevent anything from being given to him without his consent since he knew the government would do almost everything to exploit their powers. But now this resistance was slowly killing Reed. His body needed fluid and water, but they couldn't give it to him.

"Reed, you're so stupid I'm surprised you're alive this long." Ben said angrily, staring at his best friend's face. "I'm never gonna forgive you if you don't wake the hell up, Reed!"

Despite Ben's best judgment, he carefully and tenderly put his rocky hand on Red's much smaller one. As if feeling the rough texture of the Thing's hand, Reed's fingers moved a little.

"Reed? Come on, wake up and so we can save you and kick your ass! Hey guys, get in here!" Ben shouted.

"What, he woke up?" Johnny bounced on his feet, looking at Reed.

"No, but he moved."

"You should continue doing what you were doing." Sue suggested hopefully, putting a hand on Reed's cheek, getting more reaction.

"Maybe he had become less exhausted after lying still?" Johnny mumbled in wonder.

"Hey Reed, we're here. Wake up! You hear me, Reed?" Ben poked Reed gently with his rocky finger.

"It's Sue! You need to open your eyes for us, okay?" Sue kept her voice steady and strong. She needed to be strong for herself, for Reed, for her friends. Damn, she was a member of Fant4stic.

"Reed, man, you have to wake up! Sue and Ben are really mad at you!" Johnny joined his friends in waking his comatose friend up.

"Wha… what?" Reed mumbled, frowning. He heard voices blending together.

"That's it, Reed! Reed, you need to relax so we can give you some fluids okay?" Sue tried to state as clearly as possible, but Reed couldn't understand what she was saying.

"Reed! Relax!" Ben shortened the message into two words, hoping Reed's brain could pick it up.

"Ben…?" Reed told himself he was dreaming. Ben couldn't be this close to him…

"Yeah, I'm here, buddy. Relax and let us help!" Ben grumbled loudly.

"What… happened…?" Reed asked weakly, trying to remember what happened. Were they attacked? His muscles automatically tensed and prepared to strike.

"Shit, no! You have to RELAX! We're fine, we're safe!" Ben and Johnny said together.

"Reed, you're safe. Relax, please!" Sue was close to tears now. Reed kept struggling, resisting their help.

Reed was trying to stay focus. His friends needed him to do something… What? Relax? Why? What happened? He frowned, wiggling.

"Damn it Reed!" Ben was really mad. Mad at Reed, mad at himself.

"His heart is beating fast, you guys might want to ease up on him!" The nurse warned the worried friends. "His body is burning all its energy out!"

"Listen Reed, RELAX! Use that goddam brain of yours and relax!"

"Re…lax?" Reed murmured, eyes unfocused.

"YES, RELAX!" Sue, Ben and Johnny shouted.

If that was what his friends wanted him to do then it was so easy. His body had been urging him to do just that. Reed's muscles became lax. He didn't even feel a needle piercing his skin.

* * *

Ben, Sue and Johnny stayed with Reed after the nurse declared the genius was stable and on his way to recovery. But she did warn them if he continued to live like this there would be long-lasting effects.

"You know, Reed has always been like this. He just took it too far this time." And I wasn't there to stop him was left unsaid. Ben stared at Reed with sadness. He wasn't mad anymore.

Reed's muscles were slightly extended and sprawled on the sheet. The frown had also left his face. He was finally resting. Reed didn't look like a superhero who defeated a powerful villain with them a week ago. His boyish features suddenly reminded Ben that Reed was actually younger than him. His intelligence allowed him to skip grades; therefore, people always expected Reed to always do the right things. But he was only human.

"We're too caught up in what we lost we forget what we still have." Sue said regretfully.

"Yeah well, we all lost something important this year." Johnny's heart ached thinking about his father, the person who tried so hard to guide him.

They had lost so many things, hell yes, they had. Their normal lives, family, friendship, faith… But they also gained something great that they failed to acknowledge. The four of them were a family. They were friends. They just hurt too badly to recognize the truth when it was right in front of them.

"Look after each other, dad said." Johnny repeated his father's last words. "I think it's damn time we did that."

The others nodded in endorsement, looking at each other. Now they waited.

"Where are my friends, why don't you answer me?" Reed mumbled quietly under his breath, dreaming.

Ben's thumb stroked Reed's hand gently. The Thing watched the videos the military made during their observations after the incident in Planet Zero the first time. Reed was the first person in four of them to wake up after getting back to their dimension. Reed did ask about them, about his friends and the people who held them sedated Reed. Ben was still too mad at his friend at the time to see the meaning behind those videos when he watched them. Now he started to understand. Reed didn't abandon them. He was trying to find a cure since the beginning.

"I'm here, Reed. Sue and Johnny, too. We're fine." Ben said quietly.

They were far from fine. But they were getting there.

* * *

The first thing Reed thought when he woke up was:

"Oh shit, I overslept!"

He sat up quickly which was a really bad idea. His body protested, his visions blurry.

"Hey, calm down hotshot! If you pass out again Sue's gonna be pissed!" Johnny's voice greeted Reed.

"Hey Johnny, what the hell happened?"

"You don't remember anything?"

"Errr… I was working on… something." Johnny didn't miss Reed's stutter. "I went out to get coffee. And then… nothing."

"Well, according to the doctor and nurse, you only sleep for like an hour every day. You don't eat enough and when you do eat, it's junk. You don't drink enough water, if you do drink water at all. You have so much caffeine in your system that you collapse."

"What? It can't be that serious… I've always been like that." Reed mumbled in confusion, not realizing he was being pushed back to bed by Johnny.

"Yeah, Ben did tell us that. Makes me wonder how the heck you survived a year on your own."

"I'm a genius. It's nothing." Reed smirked arrogantly, wishing Johnny would stop talking about his habits.

"Sue, Ben and I would totally disagree. This is a big problem man. We've got to make sure you eat, drink and sleep properly until we're sure you can do all of those on your own."

"Hey, I'm an adult! I don't need a babysitter!"

"Then act like one!" Ben's rough voice interrupted Reed's rant.

"I am acting like one! I just have to finish something really important I've been working on I lost track of time! It happens, Ben." Reed winced when he raised his voice.

"You mean the serum that may or may not cure us?" Ben said calmly, putting his hand near Reed on the bed.

"Listen to me Reed, we've made peace with our conditions. Like you said, we can make a difference, we can change the world for the better! These powers will help us. Yeah, I'm not happy with my handsome look right now…" Johnny snorted at this. "But I'm okay with it. You need to be okay with it, too. The last thing I want is you running yourself to the ground being stupid!"

"I'm not stupid, Ben. I'm so close I can feel it. I just have to…"

"Ben's right, Reed." Sue joined the party. "I need you here with us, not locked in your room beating yourself up over something that is in the past."

"You're saying this because I fell asleep…"

"Damn it Reed! You didn't _fall asleep_! We found you lying on the floor! You look dead!"

"Oh…" Reed's eyes widened at his friends' faces. They were worried _about him_.

"Yeah oh…" Ben grumbled.

"I'm sorry I make you guys worried."

"You apologize so much I get sick of it!" Ben yelled. "Stop saying sorry and act like you're sorry!"

"I AM ACTING like that! I'm fixing everything!" Reed yelled and the heart monitor beeped frantically.

"Shit, calm down guys! Reed, relax. You're making yourself sick." Sue gently said.

"Reed, I need you to calm down." Ben immediately lowered his voice. He was mad at himself, again. "I forgive you, okay? I'm still your best friend, I'm just a mad best friend right now. You need to get better and then we'll figure this out."

"I already figured it out! I can bring your life back, Ben! And I will. I promised you I would fix this…" Reed sounded so tired.

"There are things that aren't meant to be fixed. And I do have a life. We have a life now." Ben reassured Reed.

"You need to take it easy, Reed." Sue totally agreed with the Thing. Maybe he was the sanest of them all. "Go back to sleep, you've only been sleeping for about 6 hours and that's not enough to make up for a whole week."

"I can sleep when I'm dead." Reed hissed, he was tired of all this fussing.

Ben really wanted to punch Reed, but refrained from doing so. The genius was being 100% idiotic and irrational.

"Are you even listening to yourself now?" Johnny grasped Reed's shoulder and shook lightly. "We're worried and you're being a dick!"

"There's no reason to worry. Can we just forget all of this so I can go back to…?"

"No, you're not locking yourself in that lab!" Sue stated strongly, she was getting angry, too. They all needed to let off some steam. "You made a mistake, a big one, yes! But you're not allowed to slowly kill yourself because of it! You're our friend, we understand and we forgive you!"

Reed really wanted to believe Sue, but it couldn't be that easy. Their life was still chaotic and it probably remained that way if they decided to become Fant4stic for real. Could they be genuinely happy with that?

"I don't know guys…" Reed rubbed his face with his hand. "The government may leave us alone for a while but there's no guarantee that…"

"Screw the government, we'll deal with that when it happens." Ben shot down his friend's worry. "Right now we need to be a team."

"You're sure, Ben?"

"Of course I am. It's gonna be fantastic." Ben smiled at Reed for the first time in a year. "But you need to eat, Mr. Fantastic."

"Why does he get to be Mr. Fantastic?" Johnny put his hands on his chest in mock exclaim.

"Because I'm fantastic?" Reed smiled shyly. So they were doing this for real, then.

"We're all fantastic! We are Fantastic Four!"

* * *

 **A/N: I just need to write that down. I hope you enjoyed reading it. It's been a really long time since I wrote something so I'm rusty. Please tell me what you think!**


End file.
